I use RAID 1 for backups all the time. I shutdown the system, pull a drive, swap it out, and then restart the system. While system is up, replace second drive with a new drive and reimage over.

Total downtime: 5 minutes or so. Degraded performance for a few hours during rebuild.

Basically, if you use RAID 1 like tapes, where each HD is a tape, it can be an extremely economical and reliable way to backup data. You know your data's being backed up because you're actually running off that data. You can't have a situation where the tape drive fails to write data and then suddenly when you have a disaster, you find out that you have 6 months of blank tapes (I've had that happen).

At $100 per tape (actually HD+case), it's very cheap per 2TB of backups.

This is absolutely true, but only on pressurized aircraft. It's the stress/release of the metal which causes metal fatigue and eventual failure of the airframe.

I expect (but don't know) that the 727 they used for the show had exceeded its "safe" pressurization cycles and was destined for the scrapyard anyway--so it only had scrap value anyway.

However, the DC3 that dblll mentioned is NOT a pressurized aircraft--so it need not worry about cycles at all. It's only about flight hours and wear and tear. As such, there's still many DC3's in operation today--some even commercially.

I'm sorry. He signed the bill into law. Had he truly been opposed to it, he could have vetoed it. Sure, his veto could have been overruled, but at least he'd be officially on the record that he didn't support it.

Also, Obama specifically requested the removal of language that said the NDAA would not apply to US citizens or lawful residents. See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DNDHbT44cY

I'm sorry--I think there's a big difference between "swiftboat veterans" for "truth" and "Obama supported the NDAA and specifically requested some of the draconian language in the bill"

Who cares about facts, won't someone please think about the blind children?

Each would be granted a separate patent?

Thanks for actually posting facts. It's refreshing, for a change. You must be new here....

Anecdotal: I no longer fly due to TSA regulations. I either drive or take a train. Yes, it's tremendously inconvenient. Yes, I hate it. No, I don't think there's a lot of people like me...

Totally agree. I was initially inclined to say (s)he's trolling, but (s)he's clearly quite learned in computers. Maybe (s)he expects that all people are just that smart... Expecting that people get parallel programs right on the first try, given their complexity is not reasonable, at least where I work (myself included). In fact, I was just working with a developer today to fix a reader/writer issue triggered by parallelism both in code and in writing to the DB. We had to sit down and think out the use cases for about an hour before we had a good working solution.

Parallel programming is hard. It's necessary, but hard, at least to us "normal" people. :)

How about the state governments do those things? Pretty sure the state governments can figure out how to build roads, clean water, and manage electrical grids. The only item on the list that I see as problematic would be "went to the moon".

I'm very supportive of minimizing the federal government. That doesn't mean I don't want government services at all--we have state and local governments, after all...

Perhaps if they get enough negative feedback, they'll drop the threatening postures and lawsuits...

http://www.firststatesuper.com.au/EmailEnquiries

I personally use a RAID enclosure from Raidon with two drives in a mirrored configuration. Something like the GR3630-2S-SB2:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816142002

(I've used Accordance RAID systems in the past, before my current Raidon).

Then I buy an additional HD tray and rotate the 3 drives occasionally to an offsite backup. Basically the cost is about $345 total, $75*3 drives+$120 for the unit, and I get 3 copies of the data. Additional offsite backups run $105 ($75 drive+$30 tray).

I've found this the easiest to understand (for end users) and a very cheap and reliable storage method. I've had the nightmare of backing up to 8 different tapes, only to go to restore and find out that 6 tapes are empty, 1 is bad, and 1 has data from 6 months back. Because you're actually running your OS off of the drives, you don't get into that situation. The main key is to make sure that you pull drives when the system is off (so that all files are written to disk), and that you insert drives when the system is ON (so that the raid array knows the drive is replaced and doesn't corrupt your data). NEVER INSERT A DRIVE WHILE THE SYSTEM IS OFF.

I have files from over 15 years ago on my main desktop computer, and the only files I'm missing are from my original 286 before I started this backup method.

This solution can be retrofitted on any desktop computer. All you need to do is install an eSata card (if you don't have an eSata port) and then purchase additional drives (SAME model number OR larger capacity as the current drive in the computer). Simply stick the current HD into the raid array FIRST, then put the new empty drives in SECOND, and it'll automatically mirror. Set the computer to boot from eSata and you're all set.

If you ever want to upgrade capacity, simply buy 3 larger drives and it will automatically mirror those drives to a larger capacity for you.